Maxx

I share your thoughts. I am here for the second round and my impression is that there are much fewer of these 'trolling' last year. Having said that, the two Northwestern acceptances may be genuine. I would also really want someone here to claim them. They also made me quite nervous!

Is anyone here still waiting for Duke's reply? Or is it common understanding that they're done this year? 5 acceptances were made on Feb 1st/2nd (who reported at GC), which is much fewer than previous years', but nothing has happened since. Gee, it's the 13th already. Also, Duke usually sends out acceptances and rejections at the same time, but this year seems to be very different. Does anyone has any information regarding the current status? Thx.

Yeah, I saw that post too, and it's said to be 100% sure. But that would be strange because the number of admits for the past 5 years are 36, 39, 32, 43, 35. They would either have to cut drastically the target for this year, or accept the great majority of wait-listers to match those numbers. Hope we'll see some more admits today, and good luck!

It indeed looks weird. Maybe it's all written by the same person. But what's the point? I don't understand.

I did. I recall seeing somewhere along this discussion that Brown won't be have the results until mid-March. But last year the one who was accepted got the result on Feb 23rd. Considering that Brown had the same deadline last year, that's pretty quick!

I think the OP should really consider retaking the GRE (even though it may now be too late), especially if his verbal score is below 500 and if his low score is an outcome of not having fully prepared for the test itself. Although the test reflects somewhat of your English ability, there is certain a substantial component of just learning how to play the game. I did my GRE some time ago and got 490 verbal. I then did a number of practice exams and tried to learn how to 'crack it'. I did it again and it improved by almost 200 points. 450 is a terrible score but I hope that with some effort the OP can break 500 and pass the first round in many more schools at least.

GRE AWA is such a stupid thing. It really reflects no one's writing ability. I think most of the schools realize that, BUT NOT ALL. For example, UCSD IRPS PhD is certainly among 'the top 20' you targetting. It has a minimum required AWA of 5.0. Yes, it's not a typo. Five point O. And they are strict about this.

Wait, I thought we are NOT supposed to contact any faculty members. Isn't that almost the rule in the US? (while it's just the reverse in UK.) Just want to know the truth just in case I got it wrong.

I am not really sure how many of us here care about the time you need to complete the degree, but I guess even if you are very young and can well afford the time, financing may still be an issue if it takes too long. And schools do vary quite a bit on this variable. Here are the data for a number of schools. I've looked at the 'cv's of their PhDs on the market to deduce the time they have spent on the degree. The time, to be sure, also depends on the research (quantitative modeling stuff usually takes less time). Also, quite a number of 'cv's do not reveal this stat, so for some schools the sample isn't that large. Nonetheless, hopefully they provide a rough guide for those who are concerned. Please feel free to add those schools I haven't mentioned. (School) (Number of years) Columbia 6-7,7,7,8,9,7,7 Ohio State 6,6,7.5 Berkeley 5,6,6.5,7,7,7,8,8,8,10 Wisconsin Madison 6.5,7,7,7,8 George Washington 5,5,5,6,6,5-6,7,8 Michigan State 5,5,6,6,6,6,7,7 Brown 5,5,5,5,6,6,6 UCSD 6,6,6,6-7,7,7,7,8,8,9 Cornell 6,7,7,7,7,8,8,8 UCLA 6,6,6-7,7,7,7-8,8,8 Harvard 5,6,6,6,6,7,7,7,7 MIT 5,5,6,7,7,7,7,7,7,7.5,10,11 Penn State 5,5,5,6,6,6,6,8 UNC 4,5,5,5-6,6,6,9 Emory 5,6,6,6,6 Northwestern 4,4,5,5,5,6.5,7,8 Notre Dame 5,5,6,6,7 Princeton 5,5,6,6,6,6,7 Georgetown 7,7,7,7 WashU 5,5,6,6,7,7 Yale 5,6,6,7,7,7,7 NYU 5,5,5,5,5,5.5,6,6,6,6 Duke 6.3 (published stat)

Okay, if 70+ people have seen this and no one gives an answer, probably it means that no one has heard of the guy...

Thanks Penelope. I have been waiting for your advice!

I hope that some of you who may be experienced PhD students or faculty members may know the answer of this question. Let's say my file is being reviewed by the ad com. Regardless or whether I have explicitly indicated it or not, it is blatant from my research interest that I am seeking a certain Professor A to be my supervisor eventually, but Professor A is not a member of the ad com. Would the ad com pass my file to Professor A to ask for an opinion? Is there a common practice regarding this or does it just varies from school to school? I ask this because the choice of words in my SOP may differ a little bit if my audience is likely to be experts yet not exactly in the same functional and/or geographical focus as mine. thanks!

Hi Sociology people, I am from political science; while doing my research on developmental state, I came across the writing of this professor Fred Block from UC Davis. I know very little about sociology and sociologists. Can anyone tell me something about Block? Is he a huge figure in the field (Wiki says he is 'one of the world's leading' sociologists)? Which school of thought does he belong to? Which other names in the field is Block associated with? I can find scant info from the net. So I want to see if Gradcafe sociologists can help me out. Thanks a lot!

Thanks. BTW, I've looked it up and Broz is actually at UCSD.

A friend of mine asks me who are the bigger names in the politics of regulations (US) that led up to the financial crisis. My own field is East Asian PE, so I don't know much. I can only name Mark Blyth from Brown and Greta Krippner from Michigan. Can anyone suggest a few more names? Thanks very much.

I agree with a lot of what Helix has written. I think that economic sociology as it is practiced currently is definitely not what you're looking for. Political science departments is closer (comparative political economy), but that is still not so much institutional economics. Your target area is small if your reference is HaJoon Chang, so I think you should look for specific people instead of departments. The following may be of consideration: Robert Wade at LSE Dani Rodrik at HKS Erik Reinert at Tallinn U of Tech Geoffrey Hodgson at U of Hertfordshire plus one or two economists at UMass Amherst (can't recall the names) Note that you may have some difficulty finding jobs afterwards since HaJoon and all these people are very heterodoxy (except Rodrik). But I guess you know that already.